MAHOMED TAGHALAQ, emperor of India, reigned from (sat. 725) A.D. 1325 to (s.n. 752) A.D. 20th March 1351. His name was Juna Khan, but he took the title of Mahomed Taghalaq. He succeeded to the throne as a parricide. He erected a wooden structure, and after his father the king, Ghaias-ud-Din, had alighted and was resting in the pavilion with his favourite son Mahmud, Mahomed proposed that the whole of the elephants should pass in review beforo the building. When they came over the fatal spot, the structure came down on the heads of Ghaias ud-Din, Taghalaq Shah, and his young son. After intentional delay, the ruins were removed, and the king's body was found bending over that of his boy as if to shield him. It was carried to Taghalaqabad, and laid in the tomb which the king had built for himself. This still stands one of the simplest and grandest monuments of Muham madan antiquity, rising from the middle of what is now a swamp, but was then a lake. Mahomed Taghalaq was the most eloquent and accomplished prince of his age, with an extraordinary memory, devout, abstinent, and moral, of distinguished gal lantry and personal activity ; but his whole lifo was occupied with visionary schemes, pursued in an irrational manner, with a total disregard of the sufferings of his subjects. Ho completed the
reduction of the Dekhan. He sent an army 100,000 strong across the Himalaya to conquer China, but they had to retreat, and scarcely a man returned. It is difficult to guess by what point this host entered the Himalaya, nor has the town of Jidiah, at the base of the mountains, mentioned by Ibn Batuta, been identified, which would indicate the position. He maintained an enormous royal establishment analogous to the Gobelins, or weavers in silk and gold brocade, to provide stuffs for his presents, and for the ladies of the palace. Ho repeatedly massacred his subjects, whom ho drove into revolt in lialwa and Bengal, and Karnata and Telingana threw off their allegiance. Ho twice made Deogiri, the modern Dowlatabad, his capital, removing the inhabitants of Dehli to it. His court was visited by Ibn Batuta about Al).. 1341.—Yide, Cathay, ii. p. 405; Elphinstone's llist. of India.